Tourists
Cape Town is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Africa
with almost three million tourists per year.
The chacma baboon is an iconic feature of the Cape Peninsula.
Almost every tourist’s visit is flavored (either negatively or
positively) by an encounter with baboons.
Not being used to baboons, tourists often behave inappropriately: for
example, they either actively feed the baboons or unintentionally leave
their food unguarded, resulting in swift thievery.
Tourism provides a special challenge to educational efforts because tourists are transitional and need to be engaged only temporarily yet effectively.
It is the behaviour of tourists that contributes the most to learned behaviour patterns of baboons, which are fed (either deliberately or not) by sightseeers along roads both within and outside of national parks.
The baboons tend to be far bolder than tourists expect and this often leads to conflict.
The people involved in these events are left frustrated and likely have many questions.
Furthermore, each of these events reinforces the baboons’ mental
association between humans and food and their preference for the easy
reward of human food over naturally foraged food.
The result is a population of baboons that increasingly menace humans
for food, raid frequently, and ultimately negatively influence
perceptions towards baboons in particular and the natural environment in general.
A strong effort focused on educating tourists about baboon behaviour, and more specifically contextualizing the situation on the Cape Peninsula, would go a long way towards both explaining these events to people and avoiding them in the future.
If you are a tourist visiting Cape Town, please visit the links to the right, and pay special attention to the tips provided on the page entitled "Our behaviour and baboons". If you'd like to understand why baboons behave as they do and how we have contributed to changes in their behaviour, then please visit our interactive diagram on the "Causes of baboon commensalism". For further information about baboons, please visit our "Basic baboon information" page under the Resources menu below.
